The origin legends of early medieval Britain and Ireland by Lindy Brady

REVIEWS117 The next three chapters form the real core of Higham's study. Chapter II, 'The Genesis ofArthur,' examines the political and ideological context of'Britishness' in the centuries immediately following the Roman withdrawal from Britain. This chapter deals with both Gildas's text and the possible historic origins of Arthur. Chapter III, 'Contested Histories: Anglo-Saxons and Britons c. 730-830,' likewise examines Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica and the Historia Brittonum, noting how their portrayals of fifth- and sixth- century Britain (and Britons) are conditioned by the immediate political contexts of their composition. Chapter IV, 'Text in Context: TheAnnaUs Cambriaec. 954,' applies this approach in the tenth century and usefully compares the historical treatment of Arthur with the references to him in Welsh heroic poetry. The discussions ofall three chapters are detailed and wide-ranging, as Higham brings historical, archeological, and textual evidence to bear in his analyses of his central texts. Though one might quibble with details of the argument (I'm not sure I hear, with his certainty, all the echoes of borrowed language Higham hears between his central texts), his notion that Gildas's De Excidio, the Historia Brittonum, and the AnnaUs Cambriae are modelled on or influenced by biblical narrative, and that, for example, parallels between Arthur and Joshua may well account for the title dux belbrum, as well as other details, is well argued and generally convincing. By insisting on viewing these early texts as rhetorical expressions with particular social and political concerns, Higham minimizes their worth as sources for historical information concerning Arthur. Chapter V, 'The Rise and Fall of the "Historical" Arthur,' studies the cultural uses of the historical Arthur beginning with Geoffrey of Monmouth and on into the twentieth century. This useful chapter nicely complements the opening one and rounds out Higham's study. The final chapter, Chapter VI, 'Postscript: The Rhetorical Arthur,' is really one final conclusion, summarizing the main points of Higham's book-long argument. The book is well constructed; each chapter is divided into clearly titled and demarcated sub-sections, and each chapter has a brief conclusion which summarizes its argument. The discussion is handsomely advanced by 39 maps, diagrams, and photographs, and supported with an extensive bibliography and index. All Arthurians should take an interest in this study; even those not specializing in the seventh to tenth centuries may take advantage of the layout ofthe book and the chapter conclusions to glean a good deal ofinsight into the evolution ofthe figure ofArthur. KEVIN T. GRIMM Oakland University n.J. higham, King Arthur: Myth-Making and History. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. Pp. xi, 303. isbn: 0-415-21305-3. $27.95 Around the year 1200 the eminent English historian William of Newburgh wrote Historia Rerum Anglicarum, in part at least to decry the 'wanton and shameless lying' of Geoffrey of Monmouth, perpetrated, claimed William, to provide the ignoble Britons with a noble—albeit fabricated—past. William has found a worthy successor in Nicholas Higham, whose latest book provides similar criticism to Il8ARTHURIANA Geoffrey's two most important Arthurian sources, the Historia Brittonum (c.830, hereafter HB ) and the AnnaUs Cambriae (c.950, hereafter AC). The Welsh authors ofthese works, claims Higham, 'historicized' Arthur (here a figure offolklore, not history) and invented his victories over the Saxons in order to counter the Britons' proverbial reputation for cowardice and duplicity. Like William's Historia, Higham's book is a thorough and blistering attack on popular assumptions about Arthur and Arthurian writers. Higham's study begins with a survey ofthe historiography ofthe historical Arthur debate, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Higham covers all of the major scholarly works, gives the reader a glimpse at some of the many popular 'historical Arthur' theories in current circulation, and rightly criticizes 'academic skeptics' for not engaging the 'laity' in this debate (pp. 3 and 35). But the heart of this new study, chapters two through four, concentrate on what Higham calls 'contested histories,' namely Gildas, Bede, the Historia Brittonum, and the AnnaUs Cambriae. According to Higham, Gildas and Bede set up the framework of fifth/ sixth century British history, as well as the notion that God punished the...

Ethnogenesis and Stranger-Kings in Old Scandinavian Literature

'NORTHERN ENGLAND', we are told, 'retains an opacity during the early middle ages which is barely penetrable: the lives, group identities, cultural perspectives, economic activities and world pictures of the vast majority of its inhabitants are all but a closed book to us.' This is especially so of Elmet, which 'teeters into the light of historicity sometime between c. 616-33, only then to be taken into Edwin of Deira's direct rule'.l No doubt this is true. Yet para-historical techniques can sometimes recover the past, as all historians know. Anthropology, archaeology, comparative law, palaeography, place-name studies, and even micro botany and genetics come to mind here.2 This paper thus falls into two parts. The first approaches the material in a familiar way, setting out the standard historical sources for Elmet and what historians have made of them. But the second part uses less familiar techniques. It applies Celtic philology to suggest what the name of Elmet means, and to translate two Welsh poems (apparently of the late sixth century) on Gwallog, king of Elmet in the 580s. It is here, then, in using work by previous Celtic scholars, that we try to prise open a little that 'closed book' of Elmet. First, previous discussion of Elmet. The normal historical sources are meagre. They consist of two passages in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, an entry in Annales Cambriae, and a brief reference in Historia Brittonum. Bede says (n. xiv) that Paulinus built a church at Campodonuln, which was destroyed (with the royal dwelling beside it) by Penda (d. 656). Editors have taken this as a Roman site near Dewsbury, Yorkshire. Later kings replaced the palace with one in the region known as Loidis (= Leeds and its environs). But the stone altar survived the fire, and 'is still preserved in the monastery of the most reverend abbot and priest Thrythwulf, which is in the forest of Elmet.'3 Bede also writes (IV. xxiii) of a prophetic dream which Breguswith, mother of St Hilda (614-80), had 'while her husband Hereric was living in exile under the Britisl1 king Cerdic, where he was poisoned'.4 Many regard this Cerdic as I N. J. Higham, 'Britons in Northern England in the Early Middle Ages: Through a Thick Glass Darkly', Northern History, XXXVIII (2001),5, 16. 2 Cf. Walter Bodmer, 'The Genetics of Celtic Populations', Proceedings of the British Academy, LXXXII (1992), 37-57. 3 Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969), p. 189; English Historical Documents c. 500-1042, ed. Dorothy Whitelock, 2nd edn (1979), p. 673. 4 Colgrave and Mynors, Bede, p. 411; Whitelock, Documents, p. 722.

Through overall developments and movements, migration has spread throughout the world, causing concurrence and amalgamation of heterogeneous and culturally different societies. Present day societies are culturally even more diverse: individuals live in numerous cultures, speak in various languages, and have different identities. Despite the fact that the movement of Armenians previously existed in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and Armenians have made numerous networks around the world, the considerable flow of relocation and the modern term of the Armenian Diaspora has developed because of the First World War after the Armenian Genocide in 1915, more explicitly, it comprises mostly individuals who survived the Armenian Genocide. The current research investigates the lives of the Armenian Diaspora in Germany, more specifically, the ones that have moved to Germany from Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. Studying the lives of the Armenian ethnic group in a host society, it discusses the issues of living in heterogeneous societies and cultures, the role that religion plays in the migration and integration context, affiliation and attachment to various cultures, hybrid cultural, religious and social identities: how Armenians perceive themselves and different societies in Germany, what it feels like to be away from their homeland and live in various cultures simultaneously, to what cultures they have a sense of belonging, how they endeavour to retain their ethnic, religious, and cultural identities, what assists them in the integration process, and how they assess their lives in Germany. The research applies three methods: participant observation, semi-structured interview and Stefan Huber’s questionnaire “The Centrality of Religiosity Scale”. Religion plays a vital role in most of the interviewees’ lives, depending on various circumstances, such as a spiritual nourishment, a psychological support, closeness to one’s ethnicity or ethnic group, access to the host society, etc. According to the current research results, the Armenian interviewees in Germany perceive religion as an inseparable part of their culture, since their religious, ethnic, and cultural identities are intertwined and regarded as an inseparable unit: religious identity – Christian, ethnic identity – Armenian, cultural identity – customs and traditions. Christianity is perceived and practiced by the Armenian interviewees as a ‘cultural religion’ for the following reasons. They consider themselves to be Christians, but are not actively engaged in religious rituals or prayers. Christianity played an important role in the history of Armenians since it helped them preserve their ethnic identity and culture throughout history. Christianity has become an inseparable part of their culture since many Armenian customs and traditions are tightly connected to it and play an important role in their ethnic, national, cultural and religious identities. Interestingly enough, even those, who consider themselves to be atheists, conceive Christianity as an indispensable part of the Armenian culture and identity.

Journal Article The Old English Bede: English Ideology or Christian Instruction?* Get access George Molyneaux George Molyneaux All Souls College george.molyneaux@all-souls.ox.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXXIV, Issue 511, December 2009, Pages 1289–1323, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cep345 Published: 13 November 2009

Origin legends in early medieval Western Europe. Edited by Lindy Brady and Patrick Wadden. (Reading Medieval Sources, 6.) Pp. xii + 474 incl. 19 colour and black- and-white ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €198. 978 90 04 40036 8; 2589 2509 - Volume 76 Issue 2

Origin Legends in Early Medieval Western Europe by Lindy Brady and Patrick Wadden (review)

This volume contains work by scholars actively publishing on origin legends across early medieval western Europe, from the fall of Rome to the high Middle Ages. Its thematic structure creates a dialogue between texts and regions traditionally studied in isolation. Part I (Regions) introduces the corpus of origin texts from the areas under this volume’s purview. Part II (Themes) identifies key themes that appear in origin legends and introduces new arguments on a wide range of early medieval material. The chapters in Part III (Approaches) conclude the volume by highlighting a range of disciplinary, methodological, and theoretical approaches to origin legends. Contributors are Lindy Brady, Erica Buchberger, Thomas Charles-Edwards, Michael Clarke, Marios Costambeys, Katherine Cross, Helen Fulton, Shami Ghosh, Ben Guy, Judith Jesch, Catherine E. Karkov, Robert Kasperski, John D. Niles, Conor O’Brien, Alheydis Plassmann, Andrew Rabin, Helmut Reimitz, Robert W. Rix, and Patrick Wadden.

Ethnic identity can have a different basis locally than it does at the level of the larger society or ethnic group. This point is illustrated with a reconstruction of the early twentieth-century ethnic classification used in three villages in southwestern Taiwan. Discrepancies between estimates of ethnic intermarriage based on government records and on interview reports result from cross-ethnic adoptions. Interview reports more accurately portray the social experience of ethnic identity for adopted daughters and thus yield better estimates of intermarriage. Analysis of the discrepancy shows the local basis of Han identity to be culture, not, as for most Han, ancestry. (Ethnic identity, historical records, memory, intermarriage, adoption, Taiwan) Ethnic identities are changeable in their content and (e.g., Harrell 1996), yet they are commonly portrayed as fixed, with clear-cut borders, the product of a person's culture and/or ancestry, in which there is no choice about belonging or departing. In order to mobilize people behind their political agendas ... [governments and ethnic leaders] actively hide the fluidity and changeability of identity and group membership (Harrell 1996:5); they discuss identity in terms of purported common descent and/or purported common culture (including language), even though ultimately it is common sociopolitical experience that binds group identity (Brown n.d.). The concealment of fluidity is accomplished by constructing of (Bhabha 1990:1; Harrell 1996:4), origin myths (Keyes 1981:8; Williams 1989:429), or a reified History (Duara 1995:4) that portrays the group as having a long and unified history distinguished from other groups.(2) These narratives draw heavily on selected historic sociopolitical events to galvanize support for the claim that the group constitutes a socially and/or culturally distinct people. Although these narratives attempt to mask them, relatively recent changes in ethnic identity can nevertheless be deciphered and the basis for such changes can be reconstructed. At the end of the twentieth century, political leaders frequently used ethnic identity as constructed by narratives of unfolding to motivate and justify warfare. Indeed, ethnic identity in relation to national identity fuels tensions between Taiwan and China that could potentially lead to warfare. Why have these ideologies succeeded in their hegemonic goal of naturalizing ethnic relations and tensions? To answer this question requires analysis of the experience of ethnic identity for ordinary people in addition to other analyses of social power hierarchies (e.g., Gates 1996). Reconstructing ethnic identity and its changes is no less an interpretation of the past than are narratives of unfolding, but it offers a different vantage point: ordinary people's experience rather than the ideology of the elite. This article contributes to our understanding of ordinary people's experience of ethnic identity in two ways. First, by analyzing ethnic identities in terms of the social experience of individuals, it shows that local ethnic identity can have a different basis than that underlying identity claims in the larger ethnic group or society.(3) With contemporaneous variation, there is the potential for future change. Second, it offers a methodology for reconstructing past ethnic identity by comparing documentary and oral history reports. Analyzing the early twentieth-century ethnic classification used in the southwestern Taiwan villages of Jiashe, Yishe, and Bingshe brings out discrepancies between information drawn from the Japanese-period government household registers and information drawn from interview reports. Jiashe, Yishe, and Bingshe were considered plains Aborigine villages in the early twentieth century, in spite of their cultural similarity to neighboring Han villages and in spite of some patrilineal Han ancestry.(4) About 1930, however, Jiashe, Yishe, and Bingshe changed their ethnic identity from plains Aborigine to Han (Brown 1996, n. …

STACY S. KLEIN, Ruling Women: Queenship and Gender in Anglo-Saxon Literature. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2006. 296 pp. ISBN: 0-268-03310-2. $30. In Ruling Women, Stacy Klein demonstrates how representations of queens played integral roles in issues that are now recognized as crucial to Anglo-Saxon literature and culture, including 'conversion, social hierarchy, heroism, counsel, idolatry, and lay spirituality'(4). Examining Bede's Historia ecclesiastica, Cynewulf's Elene, Beowulf, and AElfric's biblical translations, Klein shows how Anglo-Saxon writers manipulated the symbolic power of queens to comment upon contemporary social issues. Challenging charges of medieval misogyny, Klein explores 'revisionist possibilities' by analyzing these texts in their broader cultural contexts. In doing so, Klein restores these representations of women to the complex social and literary contexts in which they yield their most valuable insights. She combines feminist theory with cultural studies, historical inquiry, and philology to develop insightful readings of the sociopolitical critiques presented through feminine images and voices. Klein's 'Introduction' analyzes the image of Queen AElfgyfu from the frontispiece of the Liber Vitae. This image captures the spiritual and political centrality of the queen while simultaneously representing her as genetically female. Klein argues that this frees the symbolic meanings of queenship to resonate with contemporary concerns of the Anglo-Saxons, a demonstration which lays the theoretical foundation for the rest of the book. Bede's Historia, as Klein discusses in Chapter 1, 'The Costs of Queenship,' minimizes the role of queens in the process of conversion. Many pagan kings were married to Christian queens, but Bede focuses instead on the influence of bishops and the virtues of Christianity. Klein offers fresh perspective on this familiar material by considering the complex issues that drive Bede to downplay the influences of queens on conversion. The role of queen as proselytizer remains a central issue in Chapter Two, 'Crossing Queens, Pleasing Hierarchies,' which reconsiders Cynewulf's depiction of Helena, mother of Constantine and legendary recoverer of the true Cross. Klein looks more closely at the role of community and Christian submission in the poem, challenging readings that view Helena's deference to her son's authority as misogynistic. Reading these themes in the context of the Benedictine Reform, Klein demonstrates how the poem engages questions of social hierarchy through nostalgia for 'a glorious Roman past' (80). …

Introduction The cosmopolitan elite are talking about the global village. The gospel points towards a completely reconciled new humanity. So whether we are making a totally secular observation about the way in which the world has been shrunk through fast air travel and almost instantaneous telecommunications, or whether we are talking theologically-eschatologically about the one new humanity, the question is pertinent: Is it legitimate for ethnic consciousness and ethnic enclaves (i.e., within the global/gospel human community)? Or should we work to obliterate such a consciousness, bring people out and enable everyone to be assimilated into one cultural mode? This question is relevant whether we are talking about the world trends or whether we are talking about the gospel inspired dream. Keeping both together in our minds will also enable us to ponder the intricate relationship between God's involvement in human history and God's eschatological purposes. The gospel hope is that all things will be consummated in Christ when the fullness of time arrives (Eph. 1:9-10). The church is to prefigure that ultimate consummation. In reality, however, the global village consciousness is only true as far as the top elite are concerned. For many others who cannot afford to be on the move in the borderless world, as well as those forced to move in search of the 3-D jobs or because of war and conflict situations, have to take shelter in their own enclaves, (under their own fig trees, as it were). Their need for community and their search for security are met only within such enclaves. (The word ghetto is deliberately avoided because of its pejorative connotations.) In fact, even among the more globally conscious all is not well. For example, the French resent American domination; the British are not happy about a common currency, the Canadian Federation is falling apart . . . and so on. On the other hand, does our eschatalogical hope demand that we envision and work for an undifferentiated new humanity? This question is important because what kind of a church we ought to be depends on what it is we are called upon to prefigure and be a foretaste of. A simple answer is not possible. For if we say that the right to be different is to be affirmed, that there is richness in diversity, that plurality in itself is something to be welcomed, etc., we have to reckon also with the middle walls of partition, which inevitably get erected; the deeply rooted and not so easily erased memories of conflict, animosity and rivalries; the present day competition to have the share in the ever shrinking cakes of resources, opportunities, etc. - all seem to go together into one package. It seems difficult to separate that which enriches and that which divides one from the other. For ethnic consciousness is inculcated and developed on the basis of a shared and handed down memory. Such shared and handed down memories are complex. On the one hand, their components have myths of origin of a group in glorious terms, and on the other, myths of origin in derogatory terms of the rival communities. The Bible seems to suggest that ethnic identities are to be preserved with a difference. What that difference is and how we can pursue it will be the main task of this biblical reflection. The insights gained will be shown to have relevance for the secular realm as well. As was already referred to, there is an unprecedented movement of people: the affluent in quest of business opportunities or in pursuit of pleasure, and the marginalized out of sheer pressure for survival because of ethnic/communal conflict situations. New settlements of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds are established in foreign lands. Such settlements are often in enclaves. Socialization is frequently contained within people of the same cultural milieu. Ethnic churches too are fast becoming common. Quite apart from the phenomenon of mobility of large groups even where communities are well settled and rooted, ethnic and communal clashes are becoming an every-day reality. …

Crucial texts from ninth- and tenth-century Wales analysed to show their key role in identify formation. WINNER OF THE FRANCIS JONES PRIZE 2022 Early medieval writers viewed the world as divided into gentes ("peoples"). These were groups that could be differentiated from each other according to certain characteristics - by the language they spoke or the territory they inhabited, for example. The same writers played a key role in deciding which characteristics were important and using these to construct ethnic identities. This book explores this process of identity construction in texts from early medieval Wales, focusing primarily on the early ninth-century Latin history of the Britons (Historia Brittonum), the biography of Alfred the Great composed by the Welsh scholar Asser in 893, and the tenth-century vernacular poem Armes Prydein Vawr ("The Great Prophecy of Britain"). It examines how these writers set about distinguishing between the Welsh and the other gentes inhabiting the island of Britain through the use of names, attention to linguistic difference, and the writing of history and origin legends. Crucially important was the identity of the Welsh as Britons, the rightful inhabitants of the entirety of Britain; its significance and durability are investigated, alongside its interaction with the emergence of an identity focused on the geographical unit of Wales.

Crucial texts from ninth- and tenth-century Wales analysed to show their key role in identify formation. WINNER OF THE FRANCIS JONES PRIZE 2022 Early medieval writers viewed the world as divided into gentes ("peoples"). These were groups that could be differentiated from each other according to certain characteristics - by the language they spoke or the territory they inhabited, for example. The same writers played a key role in deciding which characteristics were important and using these to construct ethnic identities. This book explores this process of identity construction in texts from early medieval Wales, focusing primarily on the early ninth-century Latin history of the Britons (Historia Brittonum), the biography of Alfred the Great composed by the Welsh scholar Asser in 893, and the tenth-century vernacular poem Armes Prydein Vawr ("The Great Prophecy of Britain"). It examines how these writers set about distinguishing between the Welsh and the other gentes inhabiting the island of Britain through the use of names, attention to linguistic difference, and the writing of history and origin legends. Crucially important was the identity of the Welsh as Britons, the rightful inhabitants of the entirety of Britain; its significance and durability are investigated, alongside its interaction with the emergence of an identity focused on the geographical unit of Wales.

Why I Call Australia ‘Home’?

Contents: Introduction, Martin Brett. Part I The Anglo-Saxon Saints: The Viking hiatus in the cult of saints as seen in the 12th century, R. Bartlett Folcard of Saint-Bertin and the Anglo-Saxon saints at Thorney, Rosalind Love Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica as a source of lections in pre- and post-Conquest England, Teresa Webber. Part II Anglo-Saxon England in the Narrative of Britain: Danish ferocity and abandoned monasteries: the 12th-century view, Julia Barrow Symeon of Durham's Historia de Regibus Anglorum et Dacorum as a product of 12th-century historical workshops, David Rollason William of Malmesbury's diatribe against the Normans, R.M.Thomson Normandy's view of the Anglo-Saxon past in the 12th century, Elisabeth van Houts Richard of Devizes and a 'rising tide of nonsense': how Cerdic met King Arthur, John Gillingham. Part III Anglo-Saxon Law and Charter: Historical literacy in the archive: post-Conquest imitative copies of pre-Conquest charters and some French comparanda, J. Crick The use and abuse of Anglo-Saxon charters by the kings of England, 1100-1300, Nicholas Vincent Pre-Conquest laws and legislators in the 12th century, Bruce O'Brien. Part IV Art History and the French Vernacular: 'History' in Anglo-Norman romance: the presentation of the pre-Conquest past, Judith Weiss The scribe looks back: Anglo-Saxon England and the Eadwine Psalter, C. Karkov The Anglo-Saxon tradition in post-Conquest architecture and sculpture, Malcolm Thurlby. Bibliography Indexes.